Something Bitter, Something Sweet
by Merks
Summary: Following their parents death, Sasuke moves back to Japan from America. His first experience of a Japanese school in ten years is less than pleasant, and he almost wishes he could go back 'home'. Multichapter or oneshot? It remains to be determined.


**Whell, I've spawned another idea. Now here's something to think about as you read this: I included a band I absolutely adore. The first person to correctly name that band may have a request fic if they want it.  
Also, I DO NOT own said band, or Naruto.**

This was a bad idea.

"Naruto."

This was a mistake. He should just shut up and turn around. No good could possibly come of this.

"We need to talk."

**Stupid Sasuke.**

-EARLIER THAT DAY-

"I don't want you talking to any strangers. Or taking candy from people you don't know. Hell, don't take candy from anybody. You never know who might be out to rape you."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Yes, okaasan."

"I'm not your mother."

"You sure do act like it." Sasuke told his older brother. "Now stop treating me like a kindergartener. I'm gonna be late." he headed for the door, bag slung over one shoulder, and whistled a tune. Maybe he should be nervous, but he didn't completely understand why. All he was doing was starting high school in Japan. Sure, he'd been in America for the past ten years, but it couldn't be **that** different. Could it?

"Be safe!" Itachi called, settling his butt against the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee in his hands. Itachi joked, but he meant every word. He'd missed his little otouto while the family'd been living overseas. He didn't want to say that he was happy their parents died, because he wasn't, but he was glad that his brother had come back to him. He sighed softly, taking another sip of coffee and going to lock the front door. He wasn't paranoid, he told himself. Just smart.

-

Sasuke walked to school, only recalling the way because Itachi had made him walk it back and forth for three hours a day over the past week. He was just passing a somewhat run down house when a frazzled blonde-haired boy launched himself out the front door. He looked like he wanted to get the hell out of there, and barely noticed Sasuke until it was too late. The two collided with a crash, Sasuke groaning. A taller, blue haired boy stuck his head out of the door. "Mou, ebichan, you almost forgot your lunch."

"Don't call me that!" the strange boy yelled, leaping to his feet and snatching his bag off the ground.

He raced off, leaving the blue haired boy to blink dumbly. He flashed a sheepish smile at Sasuke before turning back into the house. "Wah, he ran off!"

Sasuke stood and brushed himseld off. Itachi hadn't been kidding - their neighborhood was full of weirdos.

He continued on his way, shaking his head. _I wonder if I'll recognize anyone_...

-

Sasuke rolled his eyes almost angrilly. Idiots. He was surrounded by idiots. The difference about school here was he stayed in virtually the same class all day, which meaned he was STUCK with these people. There was the strange blonde boy that had run into him, a few faces he barely recognized, and a lot of strangers. "Uzumaki late _again_?" their teacher sighed, and a few students nodded. Uzumaki... why did Sasuke recognize that name..?

"He's always late, sensei. Just start class without him." A bubblegum pink-haired girl piped. Sasuke swore he'd known her at come point, by her face and eyes. Her hair, though, was completely absurd.

Their teacher sighed again. "Alright, then, put everything away aside from your textbooks. We'll be starting on page 349."

Sasuke raised his hand. "Ah, sensei, I need a book."

The teacher nodded and gestured towards a **very **messy bookshelf wedged into the corner of the room. "There might be one somewhere back there."

Sasuke nodded and stood, carefully moving things around while listening to the class. "Ne, his Japanese is kind of funny..." he heard one girl mutter.

Another joined in, "What do you expect? He _is_ a Yank."

The first girl laughed. "Yeah..."

That comment bothered him and he closed his eyes for a moment, gritting his teeth as he continued to search, eventually unearthing a battered textbook. He returned to his seat, between the strange blonde and an empty desk.

The teacher stared at the class for a moment, as though thinking deeply about something, before he sighed.

Sighing seemed to be an epidemic around here, Sasuke thought.

He spared a look around the room before he opened up to the assigned page and began to follow along, allowing comments from the students. After a moment, the teacher paused and snapped, "Tooru!"

There was a hush as the entire class jumped, save for that strange blonde boy, who just continued reading his manga - Deathmask, Sasuke could tell by the cover. "Ee, Hatake-sensei?"

"PUT THE MANGA BOOK AWAY." Maybe it was the tone of the teachers voice, or mabye it was the way the boy - Tooru - sighed witheringly and merely set the book on top of his desk, but Sasuke got the feeling that this happened often.

"Moving on." Their teacher sighed in a tone that assured no objections. (There went that sighing again, thought Sasuke.)

-

They were well into the lesson when the door all but slammed itself open. An angry and tired looking blonde boy stalked in, tossed an orange admittance slip at the teacher, and crossed to the empty desk next to Sasuke. The student then proceeded to sulk, paying no attention to Sasuke whatsoever. The startled Uchiha **recognized** this boy, something about the way he looked triggering something in his brain.

"Nice of you to grace us with your presence, Uzumaki." the teacher spoke. And the memories **clicked**.

Uzumaki Naruto: the orphan boy whom Sasuke had relentlessly teased in kindergarten, the boy that was all smiles and games in class except when around Sasuke, yet still obnoxious and loud. What had _happened_ to him?

"I came, didn't I?" Naruto snapped, crossing his arms.

"Be respectful, Uzumaki. We have a new student." Hatake-sensei gestured towards Sasuke, who threw his gaze away from the blonde in embarrassment before letting his eyes drift back, as though nonchalant.

Naruto looked at the boy next to him and froze, glare intensifying into something harsher. "Yeah, I see him." he regarded the teacher rudely. "What of him?"

"Don't be rude. Now get your text out and follow along."

Naruto grumbled and took out a textbook even more battered than the one Sasuke had. He flipped open to the completely wrong page, leaned back in his chair, and promptly fell asleep.

Looking to the blonde on the other side of him, Sasuke sighed, seeing that he'd pulled the manga back out.

Again, idiots.

-

Lunch was horrible.

Everyone was LOUD, and their teacher decided to let in wandering students from other classes. Sasuke had hoped to maybe talk to Naruto, seeing as he was the only one he knew, but the blonde was sitting next to a boy with inverted triangles painted on his cheeks, and they were both silently eating their bentos and glaring vehemently at him.

He'd had to move, to make things even worse, because two boys came in to bother Tooru. One was the blue-haired boy he'd seen earlier that morning, and the other was a redhead that immedeately sat himself on Sasuke's desk.

So he resigned himself to the corner, eating the lunch Itachi had made him. The people here really made him miss America - he'd been there for most of his life, and to him, it felt like home. At least, more like home than this.

By lunch he'd been pushed, made fun of and laughed at, all because his Japanese was a little rusty and he was used to the workings of an American school as opposed to a Japanese one.

He didn't tease anyone anymore, because he now knew how it felt. Americans weren't always that nice either, and when he first arrived everyone made fun of him because he could barely speak English. He'd almost forgotten about that until now. He decided then that he hated school quite a bit more than he'd originally thought he would. When lunch drew to a close, the teacher shooed the extra students out of the room, and Sasuke could return to his desk.

Naruto sat rigidly, glaring at the front of the room. Tooru had continued reading his manga book, nonchalantly munching on some pocky. Their teacher, Asuma-sensei, was talking about a previous assignment that Sasuke had no idea about, so he slunk into his seat. He was content with sulking until Naruto passed him a piece of paper.

**I saw that expression, teme. Don't you dare try and fucking talk to me.**

Teme?! Sasuke stared at the messy scrawl, completely taken aback. He pulled out his pencil and scribbled a response.

_What the hell makes you think you can call me that, huh?_

He passed the paper back to the angry blonde, who in turn furiously scratched his pencil across the paper. Sasuke blinked in disbelief as he read.

**I know your type, Uchiha, and I remember you. You're the snobby, spoiled pretty boy who has everything but a care in the world. I hate you, I hate your kind. Just because I liked you in kindergarten doesn't mean I want to have anything to do with you now.**

Sasuke's upper lip curled and he crumpled the paper. The nerve of that boy! He didn't quite know why he was so upset by Naruto's words, but something in him **fumed** in anger. Hell, he didn't even know whay he wanted to be Naruto's friend in the first place. Maybe it was just the fact that he knew who he was - other than the pink-haired girl, he didn't recognize anybody.

He chanced a glare at Naruto and saw that he was trying to sleep again. God, this kid pissed him off. He reached out to tap his shoulder, still wanting to talk to him. As soon as Sasukes fingers touched Naruto the blonde grabbed his wrist and twisted, pulling Sasuke out of his seat. A fist connected with his jaw and he tasted blood as he bit his tongue involuntarily. "**DON'T TOUCH ME**!"

"UZUMKAI! To the office!" Their teacher shouted, and Naruto grabbed his bag, storming off in a huff. "Lee, take him to the nurse."

There was silence as Lee handed Sasuke a cloth for his mouth. "Come on, Uchiha-san." Lee offered softly, and Sasuke wondered why the strange boy with a bowl cut and a green spandex shirt knew his name already.

He ended up swallowing more blood than he would've liked to, and discovered that when Naruto punched him, he accidentally bit pretty far into his tongue.

What a great first day of school this was turning out to be.

-

By the end of the day, Sasuke was more than ready to go home. When he got back to class, with gauze in his mouth and an ice pack against his cheek, he was the object of even more teasing. The ohnly ones who didn't tease him were that student Lee, the boy named Tooru, and some meek, purple-haired girl.

As he was leaving school, he saw Naruto leaning against the front gate, presumably for triangle boy, and approached him. He didn't completely understand why he did, and the throbbing pain in his jaw reminded him that this boy was not to be messed with.

Maybe it was that Uchiha's never learn their lesson the easy way, or maybe Sasuke just wanted a friend and was looking in all the wrong places. But either way, here he was, walking with a strange determination towards the angry blonde.

Swallowing the sudden coctail of fear and fury rising in his throat, he sighed. "Naruto." Oh **GOD **this was a bad idea. "We need to talk."

_-fin.-_

**So, I don't know what to do with this. I'm thinking it's just a oneshot. Hmmm.**


End file.
